THE MAGNET IN PATRISTIC WRITINGS. 91 



of the magnet of selecting iron only and lifting up that 

 metal, holding it without visible prop from beneath or 

 apparent means of suspension from above, and all by some 

 hidden or occult cause, declares that this does no more than 

 does the word of God for all men, if they would only give 

 ear to it. Yet, though many listen, only the faithful are 

 garnered ; while not even to these is held out the consola- 

 tion of earthly happiness below, nor is the bond which 

 unites them to heaven above manifest. Hence, it is some- 

 thing unknown, or rather the hope of it, which supports 

 them, even as the unknown virtue of the magnet raises and 

 supports the iron. 



Nevertheless, the tendency of the early teachers of Chris- 

 tendom was to discourage the study of natural philosophy. 

 The momentous questions involved in the new faith, in 

 their estimation, so completely dwarfed all mundane issues, 

 that the search for physical truth seemed but a misapplica- 

 tion of the mental powers, which should be devoted solely 

 to the consideration of moral duties and the future world. 

 "It is not through ignorance of the things admired by 

 them," says Eusebius, 1 "but through contempt of their 

 useless labor that we think little of these matters, turning 

 our souls to the exercise of better things." All physical 

 reasoning was denounced as "empty and false ;" and to 

 dispute concerning such matters as the dimensions of the 

 sun, the nature of the heavenly bodies and the magnitude 

 of the earth, "is just as if we chose to discuss what we 

 think of a city in a remote country of which we never 

 heard but the name." 2 



Such being the attitude of the most cultivated minds 

 toward scientific research, it necessarily ceased. St. Isi- 

 dore, in his encylopedic "Etymologies," 3 at the end of 

 the 6th century, adds nothing to the facts reported by 

 St. Augustine, and repeats the same account of the Samo- 

 thracian rings and the silver plate, with a few additions, 

 mainly derived from Pliny. 



1 Praep. Ev., xv , 61. 2 Lactautius, liii., init. 3 Originum, lib. xvi., iv. 



